Serbian state media begins to waver in its support of
Milosevic

New York, October 3, 2000 —As opposition demonstrators strive
to dislodge embattled president Slobodan Milosevic via a national
strike, the regime is losing control over certain state media outlets,
numerous local and international sources have confirmed.

Over the past decade, Milosevic has relied on state media to celebrate
his own record and vilify his foreign and domestic opponents, while
excluding all dissenting views. But in the past week, state broadcast
and print journalists across Serbia have started demanding the right
to cover current events with a degree of objectivity and editorial
independence.

Seven state-owned local radio stations announced on Sunday and Monday
that they would no longer re-broadcast news reports from the staunchly
pro-government Radio Television Serbia (RTS). Radio Obrenovac, Radio
Smederevo, Radio Novi Becej, Radio Zajecar, Radio Lazarevac, Radio
Mladenovac, and Radio Sremcica stated that they would cover political
developments “objectively.”

On Sunday, 14 journalists from the state-controlled radio station
Channel 3, which covers arts and cultural affairs, demanded
international mediation to resolve the electoral crisis in the
country. On Monday, 68 employees of Radio Belgrade issued a statement
urging the station to change its “distorted” editorial
policy.

Employees of some state-run television stations also began withdrawing
their support from the Milosevic regime.

On Saturday, RTS general director Dragoljub Milanovic dismissed six
employees who had formed a strike committee at Radio Television Novi
Sad (RTNS), an RTS subsidiary, and called for changes in the
management. Committee member Tatjana Vojtehovska told reporters on
Monday that the strike committee wanted all RTS employees “to
deny obedience to the company's management and oppose the
manufacturing of false information broadcast daily by the RTS.”
Over 100 of the station's employees signed a petition demanding
more professional reporting that was sent to station management on
Monday.

Also on Monday, approximately 20 state television employees in the
town of Uzice went on strike over the network's editorial
policy. In the southern Serbian city of Prokuplje, authorities shut
down the local state television station Monday afternoon after some 50
protesters stormed the building. Just before authorities cut its power
supply, the station transmitted a pro-opposition statement.

Belgrade's Studio B TV, a formerly independent station that the
regime took over in May, started broadcasting some opposition press
conferences on Friday, the Belgrade-based VIP news agency reported. On
Monday, over 140 Studio B TV employees went on strike because the
station's management refused to change its pro-regime editorial
policy, according to local media.

Meanwhile, Belgrade's BK Television, which is owned by Bogoljub
Karic, an influential businessman and former close associate of
Milosevic, announced that its signal had been jammed when it tried to
broadcast opposition press conferences, according to VIP.

Print rebellion

Print journalists at several state-owned publications also demanded
editorial policy changes. On Sunday, around 50 journalists working for
the state-controlled Belgrade daily Vecernji Novosti called on the
paper's editorial board to start running unbiased current affairs
coverage within 24 hours. The board had not complied by Monday, when
25 employees in the newspaper's computer center went on a protest
strike.

That same day, approximately 55 journalists from the state news agency
Tanjug signed a petition that called on management to “respect
the principles of full, objective and truthful informing.”

Foreign journalists harassed

The growing unrest within the state media network has been accompanied
by government harassment of foreign correspondents. On September 26,
Yugoslav information minister Goran Matic warned that foreign
reporters who reported inaccurate statements made by Yugoslav citizens
regarding the September 24 election would lose their press
credentials.

Rather than systematically cracking down on the foreign press corps,
however, the government seems to have acted capriciously in denying
visas and press credentials to individual reporters.

On Friday, September 29,Yugoslav authorities ordered BBC correspondent
Jacky Rowland to leave the country within 48 hours, according to wire
service reports. Rowland's expulsion came one week after numerous
journalists were denied visas and press credentials to cover the
Yugoslav election.

A week earlier Interior Ministry officials told a group of 18 foreign
correspondents who had entered Yugoslavia with valid visas and were
waiting to receive press credentials at a Belgrade police station that
their visas had been revoked and that they had 24 hours to leave the
country. They were later allowed to re-enter the country, according to
Reuters.

Also on September 22, Interior Ministry officials told Aija Kuge of
the RFE/RL's Russia service that she was forbidden to cover the
elections, RFE/RL sources told CPJ. Alan Freeman of the Toronto Globe
& Mail was temporarily detained by Yugoslav authorities on
Saturday, September 23, fined 3200 dinars (US$90 at the unofficial
rate), and then allowed to resume his work, the newspaper told CPJ.